The Bosniak leader supported Azerbaijan in the war with Armenia
The unofficial leader of the Bosniak community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, head of the oldest conservative-Islamist Party of Democratic Action, Bakir Izetbegovic, said that “the Armenian side bears full responsibility for the outbreak of the conflict in Azerbaijan.”
Tanyug reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We are deeply concerned about the situation in Azerbaijan after the artillery attacks on Armenian forces,” Izetbegovic said. “According to international law, the Nagorno-Karabakh region belongs to the territory of Azerbaijan, and Armenia’s declaration of war represents yet another military aggression that cannot be tolerated, especially after civilians were targeted in Armenian attacks.”
The Bosniak leader said that what he now sees in Azerbaijan (as Izetbegovic called the territory of Karabakh, today populated predominantly by Armenians - ed.) reminds him of the experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, in his interpretation, “was subjected to brutal military aggression with the aim of expulsion of the population and fragmentation of the territory.”
“Azerbaijan has every right to defend its territorial integrity, and also has the obligation to prevent a repeat of the mass crimes against its civilian population committed by Armenian troops in the 90s, expelling numerous refugees and preventing them from returning to their homes later,” the SDA leader said. “The bodies of the international community, primarily the OSCE, which has a mandate on this problem, are obliged to respond on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions, which clearly mandate the withdrawal of the occupying Armenian forces from the territory of Azerbaijan.”
Izetbegovic concluded that any “support for Armenian illegal actions through a half-hearted or neutral position of the international community contributes to further escalation of the conflict,” so “it is important to provide precise and decisive support to the Azerbaijani authorities in this matter.”
It is worth noting that the Bosniaks, and subsequently the Sarajevo elite of BiH, traditionally consider themselves a historical ally of Turkey and support the foreign policy of this country.
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